Partners Group shares key messages from its Capital Markets Day

Partners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, will today communicate its investment and business development strategy for the next private markets cycle at a Capital Markets Day for shareholders.

Partners Group bases its future strategy on three foundational pillars. Firstly, the firm will continue to build its transformational investing platform across its five private markets asset classes, with a focus on sustaining its superior track record of returns. Secondly, the firm will grow its market-leading bespoke mandate and evergreen fund business to enable clients in every segment to access its premier investment content. Thirdly, the firm seeks to add select high-performance investment engines with complementary strengths to parts of its existing platform. By focusing its business development around these three strategic pillars, Partners Group expects its AuM^[1] growth to outpace the broader private markets industry, increasing threefold over the current cycle to more than USD 450 billion by 2033.

Across its five private markets asset classes, Partners Group has the following asset class strategies.^[2]

• Private equity: be the global leader in the extended middle market and in providing comprehensive private equity solutions. Partners Group will grow its global franchise, for which it has been ranked the most consistently outperforming private equity buyout manager following the Global Financial Crisis.^[3] The firm will harness cutting-edge technology and its proprietary PG Business System to expand the capacity of its transformational investing strategy, which focuses on thematic sourcing and entrepreneurial governance. Organic growth may be complemented with select acquisitions of other outstanding private equity firms that are able to add breadth to its offering. The firm expects to grow private equity AuM to more than USD 200 billion.
• Private credit: be the best provider of portfolio solutions in corporate private credit. Partners Group will strengthen its existing extended middle market-focused private credit business and expand its CLO platform. Additional growth will come from a focus on newer credit strategies including NAV lending, credit secondaries, and other corporate private markets-related credit. The firm will prioritize organic growth until there is a shift in the credit cycle. The firm expects to grow private credit AuM to more than USD 70 billion.
• Infrastructure: become the global leader in actively managed infrastructure strategies. Partners Group will expand its infrastructure business, centered around its platform-building investment strategy, across the active infrastructure risk-return spectrum. To support this, the firm will build out its network of infrastructure operators and its systematic approach to entrepreneurial ownership. The firm will focus on organic growth and consider acquisitions only on an opportunistic basis given its strong existing franchise and the fact there is less industry fragmentation in infrastructure. The firm expects to grow infrastructure AuM to more than USD 100 billion.
• Real estate: become the leading real estate investor in key thematic sectors. With a focus on building depth around seven high-conviction investment themes, Partners Group will develop a vertically integrated real estate platform by adding operational experience and building development expertise. Growth may be enhanced through partnerships with and select acquisitions of specialist real estate operators, as illustrated by its recent acquisition of Empira Group and investments in Trinity Investments and Citivale. The firm expects to grow real estate AuM to more than USD 50 billion.
• Royalties: establish Partners Group as the leader in cross-sector royalty portfolios. Partners Group will focus on building vertical depth across sectors to support its pioneering global cross-sector royalty strategy. The firm expects to grow royalties AuM to more than USD 30 billion.

Partners Group was founded in 1996. Since then, the firm has invested a total of USD 234 billion in private markets on behalf of more than 1,200 institutional clients and over 65,000 individual investors globally. Partners Group’s unique operational structure enables it to deliver its investment content across a range of client solutions, spanning traditional funds, evergreen funds, and bespoke mandate solutions. It currently has more than 400 private markets vehicles under management.

Partners Group’s Capital Markets Day is taking place at an inflection point for the USD 15 trillion^[4] private markets industry. Following more than two decades of growth in institutional allocations, an increasing share of the real economy is under the stewardship of private markets and the asset class is entering the mainstream of investment management.

Steffen Meister, Executive Chairman of the Board, Partners Group, says: “After phases of initiation and institutionalization of private markets investment, the industry has entered its next cycle, in which democratization of access and industry consolidation will be the key drivers of allocations. At the same time, we are seeing an accelerated transformation of the economy due to rapid technological advances. This changing environment favors larger managers like Partners Group, which have the scale to be consolidators in a fragmented market and the resources to take an active approach to asset ownership. Our transformational approach to investing, with its focus on thematic sourcing, cross-sector collaboration, and entrepreneurial governance, positions us well to capture future investment opportunities across private markets.”

Partners Group anticipates that the private markets industry will more than double in size over the next decade. A larger portion of this AuM growth will flow from investor groups that historically have had little exposure to the asset class, such as private wealth, defined contribution pensions, and insurance capital.

David Layton, Chief Executive Officer, Partners Group, states: “In preparation for the current private markets cycle, we have shifted our emphasis from products to portfolio solutions. We believe newer client segments will look for private markets firms to tailor solutions that meet their individual needs. Partners Group is a global leader in providing portfolio solutions at scale and has a track record of innovation. We already have the industry’s highest proportion of AuM in bespoke solutions, but our goal is to be the market leader in providing portfolio solutions across all client segments. In doing so, we aim to generate attractive returns not only for our investors, but also for our shareholders.”

Partners Group listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in 2006, with an initial market capitalization of CHF 1.7 billion. Since then, it has delivered substantial value to shareholders, with share price growth of 18% p.a. and dividend growth of 17% p.a.^[5] AuM growth in USD stood at 16% p.a. and EBITDA^[6] growth at 13% p.a. in the same timeframe. As of 7 March 2025, Partners Group had a market capitalization of CHF 35 billion.

Looking ahead, Partners Group expects to be among the top five active private markets managers globally in terms of both fee-paying AuM and market capitalization. In terms of financial performance, the firm stands by the guidance communicated yesterday in its 2024 Annual Results announcement.

Partners Group’s Capital Markets Day presentation will be available for download today from 9:00am CET at https://www.partnersgroup.com/financialreports.

^[1] AuM stands for “assets under management” as defined in the key definitions and alternative performance metrics section of the Annual Report 2024 on page 35-37.

^[2] AuM growth expectations are by end of 2033.

^[3] Preqin (March 2024), Why LPs are focusing on the most consistent top-performing GPs.

^[4] Morgan Stanley Research (2024).

^[5] As of 7 March 2025; includes proposed dividend of CHF 42.00 per share to be paid for the financial year 2024, subject to the approval of the Annual General Meeting of shareholders to be held on 21 May 2025.

^[6] EBITDA stands “earnings before interest and taxes, depreciation and amortization” as defined in the key definitions and alternative performance metrics section of the Annual Report 2024 on page 35-37.